Good Samaritan turns down offer

After severing tendons in his hand helping two dying brothers from a serious crash, Tauranga's John Wilson has turned down the offer of a Givealittle page.

However he is asking if any money was raised he'd like it given to the brothers' family.


John Wilson. Photo: Facebook.

It's been less than a week since the crash, but John still struggles to sleep, because he is haunted by the visions of the two brothers laying in the mangled wreckage.

John, who lives in Papamoa, was travelling home from work on May 21, at 8am, when he came across the crash on a straight bit of road on State Highway 2, about 45km south east of Tauranga.

He was one of the first to arrive at the scene. Debris was scattered across the road and a SUV lay upside-down in a ditch. The trees the vehicle had hit looked shredded as if a tornado had torn through them.


The scene of the fatal crash last weekend.

Inside the black SUV, on the backseat lay 12-year-old Te Hira Whittaker-Ngaropo - who had died from his injuries. His older brother and driver of the vehicle, Chance Whittaker-Ngaropo, 16, would be flown to Waikato Hospital where he would later die due to injuries sustained in the crash.

John, who has worked as an electrician for a tissue plant in Kawerau for 40 years, says he still sees the image of the two boys every night.

In an emotional moment, John - a father of four - told SunLive, he wishes he could have done more and often gets upset thinking of the boys' parents and what they're going through.

'I think about how sad they must be now and I know they are Maori boys and family means a lot to them and with the circumstances [the boys] were attending a funeral.

'It's pretty sad. I mean whatever happen or however the accident happen, that's secondary. What's occurred to the boys and their family that's the main thing, they still have a lot of grieving to go through.”

While trying to tip the vehicle onto its wheels, John's left hand was injured - severing tendons and nerves on his little, index and ring fingers.

John had surgery two days ago and will now spend up to four months off work.

When SunLive readers read about John's plight the overwhelming message was the 63-year-old was a 'legend” and a 'hero”. Something John says he definitely isn't.

'All I did was help out as best I could. I hurt myself while we were trying to get the car on its wheels, so we could help the driver who was still alive at the time.”

John says the real heroes where the emergency services who attended the crash.

One reader Rosalind Clewley asked SunLive to approach John to see if he would allow her to start up a Givealittle page to help him with his recovery.

While John is grateful for the thought, he says he would rather see the money go to the boys' family.

'If they want to raise money, donate the money to the boys' parents or their family or something like that. I'd rather the money go to the family or for a memorial for the boys.”


Facebook feedback from SunLive readers.

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1 comment

Kudos...

Posted on 28-05-2016 00:47 | By GreertonBoy

To you John... you are full of the real human spirit... so often missing these days. Good on you mate.


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